17 October 2014

Checkered Border Nails

Hello, gorgeous!

Today's look is a transparent one with a checkered stamp and a trend I never really liked--a border around the nail. I think the way it looks with this pattern is awesome... but I'm afraid the photos don't do it justice. It was really cool in real life, but I'm disappointed with how the pictures looked when I viewed them on my computer today. I wish I'd taken a look before, and gotten another set before taking off this mani. So be forewarned--this isn't up to my usual snuff and I almost didn't post them! But I think it's good to show nail (and photo) fails, too--it happens to the best of us!

Indoors, flash

Definitely a cool punk-rock/grunge mani, right? Click the jump to see how it's done!

This is a pretty simple one to do--I just wish my stamping had come out better. (I have an order placed for a squishy-style stamper, and I hope I get it soon. I'm really keen to play around with one!)

For the base, I used a sheer black polish I made a while ago--it's similar to the Sally Hansen Big Smoky Topcoat that's come out recently, but I mixed this up after watching (and recreating!) this video by Robin Moses. I just added a few drops of black to a clear polish to create a sheer base for dark French manis and such. The checkered pattern is on a plate from Essence. There's no number or identifying marker on it, but I found this pic of it:

Looking more closely, I do see some imperfections in the etching on mine, so I don't feel as badly about how my nails turned out. I do wish I'd seen that before I bought it, though!

Oh well. After stamping that with Konad black stamping polish, I added the border around the edges with my black Stripe Rite polish. This wasn't as difficult as I'd anticipated--just move slowly and use a good striping brush and it's all good!

It's topped off with Seche Vite.

Outdoors in shade

Outdoors in sun

Indoors with flash

The above pic shows off more of how it looks IRL--cool, right? My fingers look so skinny and wobbly! But I really like the shadowy, transparent look of the free edge with that black border.

1 comment:

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What you lookin' at?

Hello, I'm Amanda! Welcome to my blog. I love art and painting, and nail colour/design has always been a passion of mine! I'm not a professional, just an enthusiastic hobbyist. By trade, I'm a full-time nerd-for-hire ("the IT guy", if you will). I also spend a lot of time playing Xbox, dancing, and drinking beer. Those things are all fun, but doing them with fabulous blingy nails makes it even better! xoxo